1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to switch devices, and, more particularly, to a rocker switch device designed to prevent fire disasters and incidents from occurrence.
2. Description of Related Art
It has been long since known that a great many of fire incidents and disasters are initiated and ignited by short circuits of electrical wires that were not properly fused or due to the defective switch designs. Many of the switch devices presently available in the market merely address issues of negative overloads with the solution of electric breakdown systems, while at the same time a crucial factor of electric arcs which are usually covered by a lid body seem to be overlooked. The so-called arc factor refers to the generation of an electric arc when a switch device is turned on. More often than not, there is a surprising amount of dust accumulated in the switch device and they include dirt or dust particles that are generated from electric arcs, and over time the accumulated dust may generate heat since such dirt or dust particles are considered risk conductors, thereby leading to dust explosion or even combustion of fire due to overheating of the accumulated dust, which then causes electric arcs to ignite along the electric wire and a short circuit as a result.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 1a, a conventional switch device 1 has a housing 10 in which a first conductive member 11, a second conductive member 12, a conducting member 13, a switch member 14, an actuating member 15, and a lid body 16 to be covered thereon are accommodated.
The foregoing housing 10 is formed with a bottom portion 10a and an opening 100, the bottom portion 10a having a vertical board 101 formed thereon for allowing a receiving space S to be formed between the vertical board 101 and the inner wall 10b of the housing 10, and the lower side of the vertical board 101 and the inner wall 10b respectively have a V-shaped groove 102 formed thereon, whereas the upper side of the inner wall 10b has a plurality of linear grooves for collecting accumulative dust.
The aforementioned first conductive member 11 is disposed in the housing 10 and comprises a first electrode 110 extending to the receiving space S and adjacent to a left side of the inner wall 10b. The second conductive member 12 is disposed in the housing 10 and comprises a second electrode 120 extending to the receiving space S and adjacent to a right side of the inner wall 10b. The conducting member 13 is disposed in the housing 10 extending to the bottom portion 10a of the receiving space S.
The switch member 14 is in a slice shape swingingly disposed in the receiving space S by the restriction of a V-shaped groove 102, and further has a bottom end 14a and a top end 14b formed thereon, the bottom end 14a of the switch member 14 being in contact with the conducting member 13, the top end 14b thereof having a motion portion 140 disposed at a position close to the vertical board 101 and the inner wall 10b to correspond to first and second contact pads 141, 142 of the first and second electrodes 110, 120.
The upper side of the driving member 15 is penetratingly disposed on the lid body 16 to externally connect with a press button 150, whereas the lower side thereof is connected to a spring 151 of the motion portion 140 to relatively drive the switch member 14 to swing to and fro. The lid body 16 is disposed on the opening 100 of the housing 10.
Referring together to FIGS. 1b and 1c, when in motion, pressure is exerted onto the press button 150 to push the spring 151 to move towards a predetermined direction and thus relatively drive the switch member 14 that is supported by its bottom end 14a as a pivot for allowing its top end 14b to swing towards one direction, as depicted in a left side of FIG. 1b, thereby enabling the first contact pad 141 to be in contact with the first electrode 110, whereas when swinging towards a right side, the second contact pad 142 is enabled to contact with the second electrode 120.
The spring 151 is disposed to connect with the motion portion 140, whereas the spring 151, the motion portion 140, and the first and second contact pads 141, 142 are in an L-shaped alignment, as shown in an imaginary line of FIG. 1. Therefore, the pressured point P is situated at a side of the switch member 14 rather than a central portion thereof, making the switch member 14 prone to displacement and deviation in swinging as shown in FIG. 1c, thus causing either first or second contact pads 141, 142 to fail to be in full contact with the first or second electrodes 110, 120, as shown in an interval t in FIG. 1c, which causes significant leakage of electric arcs in the first or second contact pads 141, 142 and generates massive sparks that ignite the accumulated tiny dust to combustion and eventually lead to short circuits as a result.
Furthermore, in the conventional switch device 1, the upper side of the inner wall 10 has a linear groove 103 for collecting accumulative dust. However, the design of the linear groove 103 has been proved to be defective because the more dust accumulated over time, the closer the distance gets between the accumulated dust and the first or second contact pads 141, 142. Therefore, when electric arcs are generated due to electric leakage, the accumulated dust becomes more combustible and thus easily causes fire disasters.
Therefore, it is desirable and highly beneficial to propose a more effective and ideal design of switch devices that can overcome the drawbacks as encountered in prior techniques.